INSTANTLY REBUT MENTAL AGGRESSION (IRMA)

by D. Michael Day

Have you been doing “protective work” about hurricane IRMA? I’ve been hearing lots of people say we should be praying about it, to handle this error before gets “here”. Here is the fallacy.  We cannot start from the premise that the error is over there and coming here, getting bigger, changing direction or is days away. Such a belief legitimizes error and makes it real in another place and time. Are we dealing with a belief or the error itself? That’s a trick question because Mrs. Eddy points out, “The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real.” (530). Therefore the dream of error “there or then”, is a belief in the error “here and now”.

We must understand that we are dealing with aggressive mental suggestion and one of the duties of a Christian Scientist is found in the Manual “Alertness to Duty. SECT. 6. It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion”.

Where is this mental suggestion that we must deal with daily? It is not over there, it is not days away, it is here and now. It is in our thinking as a false suggestion to material consciousness (mortal mind). Recognizing this, we can remember the Sermon on the Mount and Christ Jesus instructing us, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him”. (Matt 5:25). In other words, “Wake up from the dream!”

Suddenly I recognized the urgency of this call to action and coined the acronym IRMA to mean Instantly Rebut Mental Aggression. This is not preventative medicine, or redirecting error someplace else where it can do no damage. It’s exactly the same as handling the mental suggestion of disease symptoms. Mrs. Eddy expands on Jesus words, “When the first symptoms of disease (hurricane, air-er/error) appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process (progress) of mortal opinions which you name law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last farthing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.” (390:12).

That certainly is taking a radical stand to IRMA, Instantly Rebut any Mental Suggestion. Do it here and now, understanding the permanency and ever presence of peace, joy and divine Power. Does the mental suggestion come to us in the form of a past memory that has been with us for years leaving scars and regrets; something immediately imminent, such as an accident confronting us with fear, doubts and anguish; or something looming in the distance with foreboding, like an impending storm? We can confidently rely on omnipresence, omnipotence God to reverse this suggestion in our consciousness, restore and resolve any remnants of error   and maintain the truth and permanence of our harmonious experience. We can negate the claims and forecasts on television as readily as any material evidence on the body. Nothing can penetrate the panoply of love in which we dwell, nothing can displace God with higher or lower barometric pressure, water temperature or prevailing winds. Right this instant, right where we are, no matter where that is, God is already in control here, there, everywhere and every time. There is no waiting involved, no approaching error, nothing can invade the time and space within His universe. There can be no vacuums or pressures within our being either, no encroachment upon our home and family and nothing to disturb our peace as we are dwelling in the secret place of the most high, under the shadow of the Almighty, and in our rightful home which is established and always protected by its provider, our Father-Mother Love.